The head of the NHS in England has told MPs that he was determined to continue to steer the NHS as controversial changes come into effect next month, despite calls for his resignation in the wake of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust scandal.12

At a fiery session of the parliamentary health select committee on 5 March, MPs questioned the NHS chief executive, David Nicholson, for almost three hours about the recent report of the public inquiry by Robert Francis QC into Mid Staffs and asked whether it was time for someone else to take charge.

The GP and committee member Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP for Totnes, asked, “How far do you take personal responsibility for an organisation that’s been shown to minimise patient complaints, gag whistleblowers, massage mortality data, bury bad news, …